Requiem by Jamie McGuire Read Free Book Online Page B

asked,
nudging me.
    “ Huh? I said, realizing I
had missed a large chunk of the table conversation. We sat in our
usual spot at the Ratty, with one chair remaining empty in honor of
Ryan’s absence. It was then I noticed a second chair was also
empty.
    “ I said have you heard from
Kim? She wasn’t in American Public’s class. She’s not here. I tried
her cell, but got her voice mail.”
    “ No, I haven’t,” I said,
glancing around the Ratty. “Not since this morning.”
    Beth frowned, leaning against Chad, as she
always did when she was unsettled. “She never misses class.”
    Our lunch table was relatively quiet after
that, making the minutes pass even more slowly, if that were
possible.
    The afternoon seemed like an eternity, and
by the time Bex dropped me off at the front entrance of Titan, I
was crawling out of my skin.
    Sasha seemed the likely target to vent my
frustration, but she wasn’t in. Annoyed, I rode the elevator to the
third floor, settling on Grant as a second choice.
    “ Afternoon, Peanut,” Grant
called from his office.
    “ Piss off.”
    Instantly, I felt better.
    “ If you didn’t own the
company, I would fire you for insubordination,” he said with an
amused grin.
    “ Insubordination requires
disregard of a command. I simply responded to your greeting,” I
said, stopping abruptly at my office door.
    “ Is that what you had in
mind?” Grant asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, oozing with
pride.
    “ I….” I stumbled over the
words, reading the letters once more.
     
    Nina Grey
    Acting CEO
    Jack Grey
    CEO
     
    “ It’s barely dry,” Grant
said, teetering back and forth.
    I looked out the closest window, and
anywhere else in the room other than the door to hide my
expression.
    “ It’s fine,” I said,
pushing past him, and shutting the door before he could speak
again.
    Taking a deep breath, I let my body melt
into the door. The office still smelled of mahogany, wood polish
and the slightest hint of tobacco. It was as if the room had frozen
in time the second he died. I could almost hear him talking loud
and authoritative on the telephone.
    I walked across the room slowly, noting the
pictures of him with members of Congress, plaques, a coat of arms,
and degrees adorned the walls. To my disgust, the large painting of
my mother and me still hung between the two large windows
over-looking Fleet Rink.
    “ That’s going to have to
go,” I said, collapsing into Jack's large, black leather
chair.
    The stack of unopened envelopes was my first
order of business, and then I read my company emails. Bored as I
was, at least it kept my mind from Jared and the time. Just as the
sun began to set, my cell phone chirped.
    “ Hey Bex,” I said through a
yawn, “almost done.”
    “ Well that’s good news,
Sweetheart,” Jared said.
    “ Hi!” I said, my voice far
too high to feign anything but elation. In reaction, I leaned over
to look out the window to the street. No black Escalade.
    “ You’re not coming home
tonight, are you?” I said, deflated.
    “ On the contrary. I will be
home at ten. Is that too late for dinner?”
    The road noise should have given it away,
but I had expected to be disappointed. “Where are you?”
    “ On the road,” he
said.
    I sighed. “Do I need security clearance for
that answer?”
    Jared laughed. “I’ll tell you all about it
when I get home. Bex tells me you had a good night’s sleep last
night. Is this true?”
    “ It is. No bad
dreams.”
    “ I look forward to watching
you sleep the whole night through, then.”
    “ See you soon,” I
smiled.
    My steps were light as I made my way out of
the building, and I couldn’t contain my smile when I sat in the
passenger seat of the BMW.
    “ You talked to Jared,” Bex
said with a knowing smile.
    “ He’s coming home,” I
smiled.
    “ We better go move his
stuff around and hide his home gym,” Bex smiled, pulling away from
the curb. “He’ll hate that.”
    I laughed. “You’re in